Foundering: Long Hooves On White-Tailed Deer
BuckManager.com | Deer Nutrition & Food Habits
Deer can sometimes grow hooves that are much longer than normal. Long hooves in deer is not common because I’ve seen reports from many different places over the years, but it’s not something most hunters will see in the field. Just this week I received an email that contained photos of a white-tailed doe than had long hooves (it was actually just her front left hoof and back right hoof). This condidtion is referred to as foundering and I believe the term comes from the word “floundering” because under extreme conditions the animal appears to be floundering around as it walks. From reviewing the literature, there appears to be three main reasons for long hoof growth in deer, but all are related to diet.
A deer that exhibits foundering is taking in way too many carbohydrates. Either this is a problem directly related to the forage that the animal is eating or it has to do with the way the deer is processing its food. More often than not, it has to do with what the deer is eating. A diet high in corn or protein pellets contributes to foundering. Corn, of course, is primarily carbohydrates.
Hoof tissue is very similar to antler tissue. If you are feeding protein to grow larger bodied deer and larger antlers then you are also feeding to grow deer with longer hooves. Foundering is almost always the result of a deer consuming too many carbohydrates in the diet too fast. The result is a buildup of acid in the rumen, which kills the bacteria that digest carbohydrates. This action then results in an increasing pH in the blood that can hurt or possibly even kill the deer from acidosis.
White-tailed deer than have foundered long hooves will often walk on the backs of their hooves because the acid buildup agitates the growth plate in their hooves. As a result of the deer attempting to ease the pain, the hooves grow longer than normal because the hooves do not have proper contact with the ground. Without proper contact, the hooves do not wear down. This problem can be exacerbated on ”soft” soils because hoof wear is already decreased in these areas.
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Also, you may want to check out coffin bones. Horses have them and so do deer (I think). Coffin bone breaks can be injuries or diet related as well.
J.L. | Oct 11, 2008 | Reply
Is this fake!!! LOL, how can a deer possibly have that long of hooves!? This is not real at all, is it? How did you get a pic of just its feet?
Jason | Oct 27, 2008 | Reply
Foundering in deer is real. Not everyone will see deer with long hooves, but they are not all that uncommon.
Buck Manager | Oct 28, 2008 | Reply
Is the meat still safe for human consumption?
Dale | Nov 11, 2008 | Reply
Yes, it is safe to eat.
Buck Manager | Nov 11, 2008 | Reply
This is most definitely real! We just shot a doe on Saturday that had foundered hooves like this on all four of its feet.
Katie | Dec 15, 2008 | Reply
I saw a doe like this in August 2009 in Pipe Creek, Texas, near the Medina River. The doe was with a fawn and seemed very tame. It seemed more like the front hooves were molting rather than extra long, and she seemed to be walking normally, without pain, but with a floppy covering on top of her hooves. We thought it was due to the drought conditions at that time. I have been puzzled by it ever since. Thanks for the information.
MR | Oct 13, 2009 | Reply
I HAD to Google this because we just visited a camp where they had one deer harvested which had these crazy long hooves! It was hanging beside some very healthy deer, and in comparison, its hide was much paler and it was pretty gangly. We’ve been hunting the area for decades and have never seen anything like it.
Eileen | Nov 19, 2009 | Reply
Nov 21, 2009 – North Central Idaho, utside Lewiston. I shot a doe with all 4 hooves curled. This is very real.
Thanks for providing this information as I was very curious of the cause of these odd deer hooves, and also if the meat was OK to eat.
Andy | Nov 23, 2009 | Reply
On November 27, 2009, in Hamilton County, Florida: It is definitely real! My son shot a whitetail doe this morning and all 4 hooves were curled up just like the photo. The deer showed no other signs of anything else being physically wrong.
August | Nov 28, 2009 | Reply
The word “founder” is actually the older term. “Flounder” was a modification of the former. Foundering is a condition that any person familiar with horses knows (and probably winces at the thought of). Horses and similar animals can present malformations of the hoof similar to what is seen in your photos. This condition, if allowed to progress (it is difficult to manage), is typically cause for humane euthanizaiton. The likely reason any deer with this problem would look unhealthy is because they would be unable to move well, which I’m assuming would mean that they would have problems accessing food/competing for resources.
John W. | Dec 4, 2009 | Reply
Is it only does that are supposed to “founder”? I’ve never heard of it before. I was just reading to do a report on deer management and it was funny how I came across this article because my uncle shot a black tailed buck this last deer season in Northern California on our private property. The hooves on that deer were very long also, but I dont think that they curled like that. I thought it was because of genetics, but I guess not.
Shasta | Dec 6, 2009 | Reply
I shot a doe this past gun season that had long toes on only one foot. She had been walking with a very bad limp as I thought she was injured and decided to harvest her. On examination of her limp leg I discovered that her hoove had been injured some time ago and since then healed up.
John | Dec 7, 2009 | Reply
I shot a 7 point buck this deer season that had all 4 feet that had abnormally long hoofs. His horns were on the way down, as he aged at 7 to 8 yrs old. The buck was very skinny and in bad shape.
Ronny Summerlin | Jan 20, 2010 | Reply
There’s a white-tailed doe in my back yard right now with 4 foundered hooves. I took movies of her walking. Never saw anything like it before.
Steve | Feb 23, 2010 | Reply